What is Well Run?
Startups announce big rounds every week. I wanted to know how they're really doing, so I built a score from public signals and gave it a race theme.
PaceHow fast a company is moving right now: hiring, recent funding, real growth, minus red flags like layoffs. Zones run from Sprint to Steady.
DistanceWhether the product can last. A Marathon is hard to copy; a 10K could have a rival next year.
Weekly550+ private startups, rescored with open roles every week. Tap any company to see why, with sources.
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Pace = momentum: open roles (all teams), how recent the last round was, traction (ARR, customers, headcount) and red flags. Checked weekly.
How the score is calculated
Score = Hiring + Funding + Traction − Red flags (never below 0)
- Hiring
- Open roles, all teams: 30+ = 2 · 10–29 = 1.5 · 3–9 = 1 · 1–2 = 0.5 · none = 0
- Funding
- Last VC round: within 6 mo = 1.5 · 6–12 mo = 1 · 12–24 mo = 0.5 · older = 0. +0.5 for a $100M+ round in the last 24 mo. Capped at 2. Debt, PE, secondaries and tenders don't count.
- Traction
- Strong ARR, customer or headcount growth = 1.5 · some = 0.75 · none = 0
- Red flags
- −1 each for significant issues in the last 24 mo: layoffs or shrinking headcount (>5% YoY), down rounds, major lawsuits, exec exodus. Every flag links its public sources.
Zones: 4.75+ Sprint · 4.25–4.74 Race · 3.5–4.24 Tempo · 1.5–3.49 Steady · under 1.5 Warm-up. Early companies (seed, or a Series A of $15M or less) also sit in Warm-up until they show strong traction. Cool-down = under 1.5 and last round over 24 mo old or shrinking.
Distance = staying power: Pace shows how fast a company is running now. Distance shows whether it can keep going for years. It's a separate label and doesn't change the score or the order.
- 42kmMarathonBuilt to last. A real edge, public proof it's working, and little that could knock it out.
- 21kmHalfThe edge is forming. Some proof, but not locked in yet.
- 10km10KFast, but easy to catch. Rivals can copy it, or it depends on someone else.
- —UnprovenToo early to tell. No lasting edge visible yet.
How Distance is calculated
1. The edge: what gets stronger with every customer? Each company gets one or two:
- Hard to leave
- The product runs core work, so leaving is painful (payroll, books, billing)
- Grows with users
- Each new user makes it better for everyone else (marketplaces)
- Cheaper at size
- More volume makes it cheaper to run (data centers, clinics)
- Learns from use
- Usage makes the product smarter (AI trained on real work)
Speed, brand, funding and famous founders help a company get going, but they don't count as an edge.
2. Proof (+): public evidence that the edge works: net revenue retention over 110% or low churn, a second product customers actually use, raising prices without losing customers, and no reliance on a few giant accounts.
3. Exposure (−): platform risk (it runs on a rival's system), clone risk (big AI labs or incumbents can ship the same thing) and burn risk (growth only lasts while new money keeps coming).
Rating starts with market position: Marathon (42 km) = category leader with a lasting edge and proof at scale · Half (21 km) = a leader or strong #2–3 with broad adoption · 10K = behind bigger rivals, easy to copy, or exposed · Unproven = too early to tell. Missing data counts as neutral, not as a strike. Every rating links its public sources; open a company to see them.